Sadly Celtic are no different from Sporting Lisbon/PSV/Ajax. Huge club with a wonderful history and fan base cursed by playing in one of the lesser leagues and in the modern game as Supers points out they have become a feeder club for those wealthier clubs in the wealthier leagues. Unbelievably our turnover was pretty much on a par with Celtic's last season and barring a miracle with the new Sky deal we will have more financial clout than a club which regularly reaches the group stages of the Champions League and has a stadium twice our size and a fan base many times our size. Sickener for the likes of Celtic as they shouldn't be selling their better players to the likes of us or Southampton but commercial reality. they are in the business of signing £2m - £3m players, developing them and seling them on just like we used to. There is little point in Celtic's fans getting the hump with us or Saints - it is not our fault that Sky choose to fund the EPL and not the SPL and us poaching their players is no different to their using their financial muscle to pillage all the best talent from the smaller Scottish clubs. Some day Sky may pull the plug and then they will have more money than the smaller EPL clubs but until that day the reality is they will have to sell of their better players to the EPL teams.
As far as I'm concerned Hooper and Celtic can bore off, this whole saga has dragged on for long enough, lets do business with someone else instead.
Quagliarella would of been great but I don't know how true that source was. We need a second forward a number 10 type player. He'd be too busy working the doors along the POW road at weekends.
i don't think there's any doubt that we have made a bid for quagliarella - too many sources in italy for it not to be true - but whether we can actually sign him is another matter altogether!!
Juve is a European powerhouse, not many clubs on the same level, players do like challenges so you never know but I always think of players like that going to clubs similar to Spurs.
Ha, wasn't aware he'd been that bad - maybe not then. How about Jelavic from Everton, though I know he'd a poor season last season too???
Yeah, Graham hasn't scored since he moved to Sunderland. Jelavic...not sure. He was brilliant when he joined in January and finished with 10 or 11 goals in all competitions. Last season he'd lost the element of suprise and finished with the same amount of goals as Holt, but played in five games more. Holt's down turn was due to a change in formation, manager and playing style, Jelavic had none of that. As for alternatives to Hooper...not sure. As long as they're better than Harry Kane...
Don't back down so easily JR. I agree with your original view that he would be a good option. 0 goals in 11 appearances for Sunderland sounds bad, but you could also view that as 0 goals in a total of (i'm guessing) about 180 minutes, most of which coming in brief 10 minute appearances. Before Jan 2013 he was very highly regarded and for me, nothing significant has changed.
I would have been happy for Graham to come in Jan, but I must admit I think we need to be looking at better now. Hope the Hooper saga can be sorted sooner rather than later. If CH rates him so highly then we need to say how much to close the deal! Get him in and ready for pre season.
For what it's worth (little!), Fer has been pictured in pre-season with the number 20 on his training shirt. That's current Barnett's number if I remember correctly, so signs that Barnett may be moving on shortly? please log in to view this image Ninja edit: Just noticed he's wearing number 22 shorts (Elliott Ward), so it probably means sod-all.
